A programmable processing device can be programmed to handle dozens of data acquisition channels and analog or digital inputs. A programmable processing device typically includes data converters. A data converter, which can be either non-reconfigurable or reconfigurable, is supported by a fixed reference source that supplies either a voltage and/or current reference signal to the data converter.
In order to support various speeds, data resolutions, sampling rates, signal-to-noise ratios, and band-width requirements, different types of reconfigurable data converters are implemented in a programmable processing device. Because different types of reconfigurable data converters impose different reference source restrictions, the fixed reference source in the programmable processing device is not flexible enough to support the different types of reconfigurable data converters.